Stephen Ray Perry (born January 22, 1949) is an American singer and songwriter. He was the lead singer and frontman of the rock band Journey during their most successful years from 1977 to 1987, and again from 1995 to 1998. He wrote/co-wrote several Journey hit songs, including "Any Way You Want It", "Don't Stop Believin'", "Open Arms", "Who's Crying Now", "Faithfully" and "Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)". Perry had a solo career from the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s, made sporadic appearances in the 2000s, and returned to music full-time in 2018.
Perry's singing voice has garnered acclaim from prominent musical peers and publications; he has been dubbed "The Voice", a moniker originally coined by Jon Bon Jovi. Ranked No. 76 on Rolling Stone's "100 Greatest Singers of All Time", Perry was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Journey in 2017. In August 2023, Perry made the Billboard list of the 50 greatest rock lead singers of all time, at number 30. At the same time, Billboard readers chose Perry as their favorite rock singer of all time, with 67 percent of the overall votes.
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Early life
Stephen Ray Perry was born in Hanford, California to Portuguese parents from the Azores. He is an only child. Perry grew up interested in music, as his father, Raymond Perry (Pereira), was a vocalist and co-owner of radio station KNGS. Perry's parents ended their relationship when he was eight. He and his mother then moved to his grandparents' dairy farm. They lived in Lemoore, where he attended high school.
On Perry's 12th birthday, his mother, Mary Quaresma, presented him with a gold eighth note pendant; Perry wears the pendant for good luck. At age 12, Perry heard Sam Cooke's song "Cupid" on his mother's car radio; it inspired him to become a singer.
Career
Early career
In his early 20s, Perry moved to Sacramento to start a band, later named Ice, with 16-year-old future music producer Scott Mathews, who co-wrote, played drums and guitar and sang. In 1972, they recorded at the Record Plant studios in Los Angeles by day while Stevie Wonder recorded his Talking Book album by night. Upon returning to Sacramento, Ice disbanded as they had no management, Mathews was still in high school, and the recordings went virtually unheard. In 1975, Perry moved to Thousand Oaks, California, where he formed a progressive rock band called Pieces with Tim Bogert (who had previously worked with Jeff Beck), Denver Cross, and Eddie Tuduri. After a year and a half, the group was unable to secure a record deal and disbanded. Perry also unsuccessfully auditioned to replace Rod Evans in Captain Beyond.
Perry then moved to Banta, a small community near Tracy, California, where he fronted the band Alien Project in his mid-20s. He nearly gave up music when the bassist of that band, Richard Michaels, was killed in an automobile accident.
Journey era
Upon returning to Lemoore, Perry decided not to continue his singing career. At the urging of his mother, he answered a call from Herbie Herbert, manager of struggling San Francisco-based band Journey. Herbert had been given a demo of an Alien Project song, "If You Need Me, Call Me", and was told by producer Scott Mathews that the young singer would be a great replacement for then-current frontman Robert Fleischman. Fleischman had never signed with Herbert's company (preferring his previous manager) and had not fully coalesced with the band's then-progressive rock style. Perry joined the tour and, to avoid alarming Fleischman, was referred to as a roadie's Portuguese cousin. During a soundcheck in Long Beach, Perry surreptitiously performed a song with Journey while Fleischman was offstage; soon after, Herbert informed the band members that Perry was the new lead singer.
Perry brought a radically new, more pop-influenced style to the band's music despite some grumblings from the band's existing members and fans of Journey's progressive rock sound. He made his public debut on October 28, 1977, in San Francisco to a mixed reception. Perry eventually won over new fans on his first album with the group, Infinity, which included "Lights", a single he co-wrote with lead guitarist Neal Schon. The band's style changed dramatically, but as Journey began to garner airplay and media buzz over Infinity, Perry's arrival was fully accepted.
Perry provided lead vocals on nine of Journey's albums: Infinity (1978), Evolution (1979), Departure (1980), Dream, After Dream (1980, a Japanese movie soundtrack), Captured (1980, a live album), Escape (1981, which reached No. 1 on the Billboard Top LPs & Tape chart), Frontiers (1983), Raised on Radio (1986), and Trial By Fire (1996). The single "Open Arms" from Escape was their biggest hit single, charting at No. 2 for six weeks on the Billboard Hot 100.
During his Journey tenure, Perry also sang backing vocals on several Sammy Hagar songs, including the 1980 tracks "The Iceman" (a nickname Hagar had for Scott Mathews) and "Run For Your Life", and duetting with Kenny Loggins on the 1982 No. 17 hit single "Don't Fight It".
In 1984, following the release of Frontiers and the tour supporting this effort, Perry released his first solo album, Street Talk. The album's title was derived from the original name of Perry's earlier band Alien Project. The record sold more than 2 million units, scoring the hit singles "Oh Sherrie", written for his then-girlfriend Sherrie Swafford and which went to No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100, and "Foolish Heart", which went to No. 18. The music video for "Oh Sherrie" was on heavy rotation on MTV. The songs "She's Mine" and "Strung Out" were also released as singles. The album featured former Alien Project drummer Craig Krampf on a few tracks, guitarist Michael Landau, and future American Idol judge Randy Jackson on bass, among others.
21st century
Perry appeared on two tracks by Kauai, Hawaii, artist Tommy Tokioka's album Happy to Be Living, singing backup vocals on songs "I Wish You Were Mine" and "An Angel Above Me" in 2000. He collaborated with musician Jeff Golub on a song titled "Can't Let You Go" for Golub's Soul Sessions album, which was released in 2003. Perry provided vocals on the mostly instrumental jazz track.
Perry appeared with other Journey members at a ceremony on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on January 21, 2005, after previously stating it was unlikely that he would ever perform with the band again. He indicated that though it was a good experience, it was unlikely that he would rejoin the band. However, he has also said, "never say never, unless you mean never, nevertheless" when the issue of returning to Journey has been mentioned.
Perry co-produced "A Brand New Start", a track on a solo album for former Ambrosia lead vocalist David Pack, in 2005. Perry also provided co-vocals and background vocals for the track, among the many songs he and Pack co-wrote shortly after the September 11, 2001 attacks. That album, The Secret of Moving On, released in September 2005, includes covers of two of Pack's biggest hits with Ambrosia, "Biggest Part of Me" and "You're the Only Woman".
During the 2005 baseball season, the Chicago White Sox adopted Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'" as their unofficial team anthem. As a result, Perry, a San Francisco Giants fan, was asked to attend the World Series and traveled with the White Sox to Houston, where he joined the players on the field and in the locker room as they celebrated winning the championship, their first since 1917.
On October 3, 2006, Perry's two solo projects, Street Talk and For the Love of Strange Medicine (both featuring previously unreleased material), and his Greatest Hits CD were remastered and re-released. Sony Legacy released Playlist: The Very Best of Steve Perry on January 13, 2009.
At three concerts in 2014, Perry joined the indie rock band Eels during the encore and sang several songs.
On April 7, 2017, Perry appeared alongside his Journey ex-bandmates for the first time since 2005 at the band's induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Perry gave an acceptance speech, but chose not to perform with the band in deference to current Journey lead singer Arnel Pineda.
Style
Vocal technique and acclaim
Perry is renowned for his tenor vocal range, which spans from F♯2 to A5. Perry's voice has been described as a "high 'tenor altino' [with] a tone somewhere between Sam Cooke and Aretha Franklin." He has been dubbed "The Voice", a moniker originally coined by fellow singer Jon Bon Jovi. Queen guitarist Brian May said: "Perry is a truly luminous singer, in my opinion—a voice in a million." Record executive, producer, and former American Idol judge and Journey session musician Randy Jackson has described Perry's voice as "the golden voice," adding that aside from Robert Plant, "there's no singer in rock that even came close to Steve Perry. The power, the range, the tone—he created his own style. He mixed a little Motown, a little Everly Brothers, a little Zeppelin." Journey guitarist Neal Schon likened Perry's ability to that of Aretha Franklin, and agreed with Fozzy vocalist Chris Jericho's assertion that Perry "might be the greatest male singer of all time".
Greg Prato of AllMusic wrote: "If only one singer could be selected as the most identifiable with '80s arena rock, it would have to be Journey's Steve Perry." Prato's colleague John Franck praised Perry's as a soaring "whale of a voice". He was voted among the ten greatest rock singers of all time in a 2009 Classic Rock reader poll. Rolling Stone ranked Perry No. 76 in "The 100 Greatest Singers of All Time", lauding his "technical skills" as well as his "pure tone and passionate sincerity". In August 2023, Perry made the Billboard list of the 50 greatest rock lead singers of all time, coming in at number 30. At the same time, Billboard readers chose Perry as their favorite rock singer of all time, with 67 percent of the overall votes. Geoff Nicholls of Rhythm referred to Perry as "arguably the best singer of his generation".
Sam Cooke, to whom Perry has been compared, was Perry's primary influence. He has also cited the vocal approach of the Beach Boys, Jackie Wilson, Frankie Valli, Lou Christie, Marvin Gaye, Joe Tex, and Jack Bruce of Cream, along with female singers such as Diana Ross, Dee Dee Sharp and Aretha Franklin. Musically, Perry drew influence from Elvis Presley and Chuck Berry. He also spoke of his fondness for Motown recordings and English bands of the late 1960s.
Songwriting
Perry co-wrote most of Journey's songs throughout his tenure with the band, as well as in his solo efforts. In 2020, he was nominated for the Songwriters Hall of Fame.
Personal life
In the 1980s Perry dated Sherrie Swafford, for whom he wrote the 1984 song "Oh Sherrie".
In 2011, Perry began a relationship with Kellie Nash, a psychologist and breast cancer survivor. He was by Nash's side as she battled a cancer recurrence. Nash died in December 2012.
In a September 2018 interview, Perry said, "Things happened to me as a child that I still can't talk about – nothing to do with my parents, but things did happen. It happened to a lot of kids, as I find out... there was nowhere to talk it out, so I got to sing it out instead."
In a 2019 interview with Dan Rather, Perry said that he had a daughter and grandchildren, but declined to go into further details saying, "I do have a child, but in the essence of protecting her, I kinda don't want to get into that... and I have grandchildren too."
Health
Perry underwent successful hip replacement surgery in 1998.
In May 2013, Perry had a mole removed that turned out to be melanoma. He had two surgeries to remove the cancer cells and was told the surgeries were successful, requiring no further treatment.
Discography
Compilation albums
Greatest Hits + Five Unreleased (1998)
Playlist: The Very Best of Steve Perry (2009)
Oh Sherrie: The Best of Steve Perry (2010)
EPs
Silver Bells (2019)
Singles
Infinity (1978)
Evolution (1979)
Departure (1980)
Dream, After Dream (1980)
Escape (1981)
Frontiers (1983)
Raised on Radio (1986)
Trial by Fire (1996)
